The Prototype
by CMDR Skarfonic
Summary: A mare, crippled from birth, seeks the help of a genius pony anatomist in order to regain her lost abilities. Unfortunately, the mare was not completely honest with her past, involving damaging experimentation and an unfortunate tie with Celestia's bad side
1. Part 1 - Evolution

The Prototype

Year 5, month 3, day 26 since Luna's reform

"Okay, entry one, Not sure how these things are supposed to go, I've never done a journal before, so, I'll just do it. My name is Proto Byte, and this is my record of exciting adventures. Nope, couldn't keep a straight face. Anyway, i'll be recording all my work here. I should really have hired an assistant, especially with my, condition. The project is… coming along, my first prototype is magic based, it has to be, I just can't make one that works with the nervous system yet, and I don't know any pony with extensive knowledge on pony biology. Even Celestia won't help me with my progress, she had declined me multiple times to access data in the Canterlot archives, I don't know why, my intentions are for the best. Hhhh, well, only time will tell, and trial and error will lead me to my final product. May Celestia aid me in my research, ugh yeah, we know how that played out. I should start worshiping Twilight."

Proto places down the pen and parchment onto her desk with her magic. She has a milky yellow coat with a white and lime green main / tail. Although she is a full grown mare, her condition has prevented her from successfully finding her cutie mark. Her condition if you are wondering is that she is a quadriplegic from birth. As you can imagine, an entire life with no legs would pose quite a wall to progress. Her parents were electricity analysts from the university of Phillydelphia. Despite her disability, She herself went to and successfully earned a masters degree in electrical engineering from the same college, but with no prevail to aid her in finding her cutie mark. She currently resides in Canterlot near the library in an old studio apartment that she renovated into her lab.

Proto tries to walk over to her working table where she was working on a motherboard for a synthesizer. Using her magic, she moved 4 artificial limbs to walk herself over to the table. On the table lay her soldering iron and a motherboard she was working on. On attempting to pick up the iron, she lost focus on her hind leg and it slumped causing her to fall onto the floor. The soldering iron fell from her magic grip and landed onto her artificial limb. The heat caused the wood in it to catch fire. In her panic she grabbed a cloth from the work table and smothered the fire. once it was out she used her magic to stand back up, but the fire burnt a good chunk out of her limb and once she put her weight on it, it snapped in half, causing her to once again fall onto the floor. In pain and pretty ticked off, she looked over to her desk and took a piece of paper and a pen with her magic and wrote an advertisement for an assistant position. Once finished, she got her spare artificial limb from a chest in the corner of the room, replaced her broken one then walked out of her apartment to the library to post her advertisement.

Year 5 Month 3 Day 27

"Well it was much faster than I anticipated. Quite literally the next day some pony answered my add, This extra set of claws will really be a help around here, no you did not hear me wrong, the pony who answered my ad isn't a pony at all, he's a dragon! I've never seen a dragon before, so this is especially awesome, He is a bit on the odd side, when I asked his name, he didn't give me one, he just told me to direct him to the places that needed work."

Proto puts down her parchment and pen and walked over to her work table. The dragon sees this and walked over to her. He has blue scales and red-orange spikes going down his back and bright yellow eyes, He is a smaller dragon, about the height of princess luna.

The Dragon, "Need anything?"

Proto, "I need you to hold me up while I work on this"

Proto points her hoof at the motherboard on the work table

The Dragon, "hold you up?"

Proto, "You can do it right? I mean, you are a dragon"

The dragon "Yeah, I can do it, its just…:

Proto, "What?"

The Dragon "what if I, accidentally, violate your… personal space."

Proto, "can you do it or not?"

The Dragon, "y- yeah"

The dragon reaches over and holds up Proto from the belly. Proto then uses her magic to work on the motherboard. As she picks up the soldering iron, her artificial limbs go limp and the dragon slightly looses his balance due to the shift in weight.

The Dragon "Sooooo, what you working on?"

Proto, "Its a motherboard for a synthesizer, some pony in ponyville burnt out the bass fuse, So I'm repairing it for them."

The dragon, "Oh, okay….. so you're an engineer?"

Proto, "Yep, an electrical engineer."

The dragon looks around the room and sees her diploma on the wall.

The Dragon, "Wow, from UOP, you must know your stuff."

Proto, "Well, I try."

The Dragon, "How come you haven't made better artificial limbs?"

Proto sets down her iron and lets out a sigh

Proto, "Hhhh, I would love to, but a degree in electrical engineering doesn't necessarily make me an expert in biochemistry" Proto uses her magic to look at her limbs. "I can't build limbs if I have no knowledge on the pony nervous system."

Proto then picked up her iron again and resumed working

The Dragon, "well their nervous system runs at 100 joules with a refresh rate of 120 hertz, is really that hard to build something?"

Proto freezes stunned, she puts down the iron and looks over to the Dragon. she then uses her magic to control her artificial limbs and backs up to look the dragon in the eyes.

Proto, "How do you know that?"

The Dragon, "Its a bit of a hobby of mine"

Proto, "A HOBBY?!"

The Dragon, "Well, yeah. You study electronics, I study ponies"

Proto, "Have you worked at all with the nervous system?" She claims excitedly.

The Dragon, "Depends, unicorn or pegasus?"

Proto, "UNICORN!" She blurts out in her excitement

The Dragon is a bit confused from Proto's excitement, "Uhh, yeah."

Proto, "What about the muscular synapse surrounding limbs?!"

The Dragon, "Yes I have"

Proto, "Ohmygosh, THIS IS PERFECT! we can finally build them then!"

The Dragon, "build what?"

Proto, "NEW LIMBS!"

The Dragon, "really? cool. when?"

Proto, "uhh, whenever you can give me your data"

The Dragon, "OH! okay, I have some diagrams back at my house. Here I'll get them."

Proto, "WAIT!, can I come?"

The Dragon, "uhhhhh, okay!"

Proto then jumps in excitement and they proceed out the door.

When they reach The Dragon's house, Proto notices how its bigger than her apartment. They go inside and the main room is filled with piles of scrolls and diagrams of pony anatomy. Near the back of the room are 3 large computers hooked up to a series of electrodes which hung from the ceiling.

Proto is in shock and awe at the Dragons library of information and technology.

Proto, "If you have all this stuff, why did you need a job as an assistant?"

The Dragon, "I was bored."

Proto, "BORED?!"

Proto looks at him in shock and thinks to her self, "So thats why he accepted it with so little pay." She then shook it off and noticed that he was better equipped to build a set of artificial limbs than she was.

Proto, "this inventory is incredible." Proto looks over to The dragon, "this may sound off and kind've ironic but, do you think we could build them here?"

The Dragon, "Sure, I don't see why not."

Proto, "YES! but one thing, If were going to be working together, I am not going to call you just 'dragon' you need a name."

The Dragon, "Oh, thats not necessa…"

Proto, "Got it, how about Genus"

Genus, "Uhh, maybe no…"

Proto, "Y'know cause genus is short for genome and also for genius, cause your a genius on the pony genome and…"

Genus, "If you have to call me something, just, call me Jim"

Proto, "…Jim."

Jim, "Yeah, just call me Jim"

Proto, "Jim… right, okay then, Professor Jim. WAIT, THATS IT! Dr. J"

Dr. J, "Ohohoh, uhhh. yeah, n…"

Proto, "Its settled, I'll see you tomorrow with the supplies, Dr. J"

Dr. J, "Wait, b-but"

Proto went out the door towards her apartment.

Jim, "Hhhh, this is why I don't have a name"

Year 5, month 3, day 28

"Well isn't this a turn of events, I ask for an assistant and end up becoming one, and with such a genius anatomist. This could very well be my turning point, Once I have working legs, I can finally focus on my life, become a normal pony of society, Live my life, maybe even find a special some pony if I'm lucky. I owe it all to Jim, still not sure on the name, or him for that matter."

Proto rides up to Jim's house with a cart behind her carrying supplies needed to craft a basic artificial limb, along are various electronic boards and wiring equipment. She goes to the front door of Jim's house and knocks with her artificial hoof. Jim opens the door and lets her in, she unstraps the cart and walks over to his table.

Proto, "Okay, show me what you got"

Jim takes out a large diagram showing the anatomy of a unicorn.

Proto, "I'm know I'm not the anatomist in this situation, quite literally, but this doesn't look like the nervous system of a unicorn."

The diagram was a base drawing of a unicorn, the head showed a large central sphere and thick veins moving down the spine towards the chest, none heading to the limbs or even all the way towards the back of the pony, they seemed to end around the abdomen.

Proto, "what is it?"

Jim, "This is the magic system of unicorns, this is how magic is transferred and used through the body. Unicorns are the only species that can control their magic, which uses it up, so they have an organ in the abdomen which can produce it, that is then transferred to the spine where it is stored, and then to the cranium and horn to be used."

Proto is stunned by his knowledge, "Wow, thats fantastic information but what does it have to do with us?"

Jim, "I may not be the electrical engineer, quite literally, but do you plan on charging your legs in order to use them? Because I wouldn't, what you need is a pair of limbs that is powered by you, I suggest magic"

Proto, "I thought you were a anatomist, now your a magic expert? you can't even use magic?"

Jim, "the two go hand in hand, I study magic, but in order to truly understand how it effects ponies, you have to understand how ponies work."

Proto, "I guess that makes sense."

Jim takes out another diagram

Jim, "Is this what you were looking for?"

The diagram showed an extensive look at the nervous system of unicorns, there was a large cluster of nerves grouping around the brain and a massive stream of them leading from the brain to the horn. Proto looks at the nerves surrounding the legs.

Proto, "Here, how many connections are in the limbs"

Jim, "Including all the micro strands? Hundreds, can you wire that many?"

Proto, "I can wire anything"

Jim, "okay then"

Proto, "how do we plan on powering this with magic?"

Jim, "Simple, magic produced in your magic gland is 100% pure, meaning it has no indefinite form until made so by your horn, Pure magic is an unstable collection of electrons, we can use those to focus a beam of electrons to each artificial limb allowing it to receive power, electricity is just a steam of electrons moving through metal, thats how we use your magic to power it."

Proto, "Then lets get to work."

Year 5, month 4, day 11

"Its been a solid 2 weeks, we've been through numerous tests and we finally have a set of 4 working prototype limbs to be powered my my magic. The only problem is that I need surgery in order for the limbs to be powered properly. we packed them up in my cart and are headed to Canterlot Hospital to get the surgery. I've gone my entire life having to be a legless freak, I'm not going to let a small little surgery get in my way."

Proto and Jim walk up to the front of the hospital with her cart in tow, she parks it and they walk inside. Jim carries a bag holding the limbs and the attachment parts that will be applied to Proto. Jim then goes up to the desk

Jim, "Were here to see Doctor Pulse on a special appointment."

The pony behind the desk uses her magic to look at a clipboard and sees the appointment.

Nurse Pony, "alright, if you could just wait, I'll go let him know your here"

They go over and sit down on the chairs in the waiting room. Jim looks up at Proto and sees her shaking.

Jim, "nervous?"

Proto, "a bit, but also really excited"

Jim, "thats the spirit."

The nurse pony comes back into the room.

Nurse Pony, "Ms. Byte, the doctor will see you now, if you could follow me"

The two get out of their chairs and follow the pony into the back. A pony in the waiting room looks over and sees Proto walking and notices that she was a quadriplegic. He then gets out of his seat and follows behind them.

Nurse Pony, "Right In here." The pony points to a office door with the words 'Dr. Sentry Pulse, Lead Surgeon'. They walk inside and see a white stallion with silver hair / tail wearing a white coat.

Dr. Pulse, "Welcome, please sit."

The nurse leaves the room and sees the pony that followed Jim and Proto.

Nurse Pony, "oh, I'm sorry sir, but you can't be back here."

The pony holds up a badge of some kind just long enough for the nurse to see it before putting it away again. The nurse pony gains a very frightened look on her face.

Mysterious Pony, "I suggest you head back to your station"

The Nurse Pony nods then runs past the stallion towards the waiting room, the stallion then walked up to the office door and puts his ear up to it.

Dr. Pulse, "So, what can I help you with today? need something for your artificial limbs?"

Proto, "Actually, we need you to help set up my new ones."

Dr. Pulse, "New ones?"

Jim takes the bag and displays 4 white and silver limbs on the patient bed along with 4 hubs for the each limb to be implanted into Proto. Dr. Pulse looks at each limb and is awed by their design and their sophistication. The mysterious pony hears about the 4 new limbs and looks into the window of the office door and sees the limbs. He then crouches down and uses his magic to pull out a pen and parchment.

Mysterious Pony, "Your Highness, Princess Celestia, I have horrible news…"

Jim, "We understand that this may not be your strong suit, but we've heard your the best surgeon in Canterlot."

Jim then takes out a diagram showing how the hubs would be sewn into Proto during the operation

Dr. Pulse, still awed by the limbs, "well, I can certainly see you've thought this out."

Proto, "So, will you do it?"

Dr. Pulse, "well this will certainly earn me a interesting reputation, I don't see why…"

At that moment a scroll materializes in front of the Doctor. It was tied in a black ribbon.

Proto, "whats that?"

Dr. Pulse, "Sorry, this is the messaging service for our hospital, And this black ribbon means that is extremely urgent, if you could just give me a moment."

Dr. Pulse unravels the scroll and begins reading, as he reads his face begins to flatten and his eyes shrink as if he had just read his own obituary.

Dr. Pulse, "Uh, I-I'm terribly sorry, but I don't think this is something I'm up for, I'm going to have to decline."

Proto, "What?!"

Jim, "But you were just about to approve it, then you read that scroll, wait, whats on that scroll?"

Dr. Pulse looks behind Jim and Proto and see the mysterious pony looking at him through the window.

Dr. Pulse, "Sorry thats classified, official, hospital business. Thank you and please leave."

Jim, "Well this is just plain rude, I demand an answer."

Dr. Pulse, "sorry thats not happening" Dr. Pulse then uses his magic to gather the artificial limbs and place them back in the bag. He then tosses the bag at Jim and uses his magic to push them out of his office, "good day."

Jim and Proto then leave the hospital and walk back to Jim's house.

Jim, "Well what are we supposed to do now?"

Proto, "Jim?"

Jim, "Yeah?"

Proto, "Your an anatomist, right?"

Jim, "I mean, pretty much, yes"

Proto, "Then could you do the surgery?"

Jim, "What? Me?! Uhhh"

Proto, "Jim, your the only other one, you yourself made a diagram to show the best Surgeon in Canerlot how to do an operation."

Jim, "Well, but…"

Proto, "Jim, you can do this, your the only one who can do this."

Proto using her artificial limbs reaches out to grab each side of Jim's face and looks into his eyes with a great sorrow and hunger for his help. Jim gives in.

Jim, "Hhhh, Very well."

Proto, "Thank you"

Proto lies down onto a large table and Jim sets up various tools and lays out the limbs and limb hubs. He then removes her 4 current limbs which were just strapped to her body. revealing 4 stubs from the unfinished development of her limbs.

Jim, "Im going to give you a pretty hard sedative, so just try to relax and fall asleep."

Proto, "Jim, you can do this, I trust you"

Jim, "I'll see you on the other side"

Jim takes a needle and injects it into the end of one of the stubs and Proto then begins to fall asleep.

Jim then takes out a scalpel and begins his incision into the stubs and into her main abdomen. He takes the hubs one by one and wires them into her shoulder sockets and takes the power leads and applies them to her magic organ, He then attaches each nerve ending to each point inside the hub. once finished he takes the limbs and locks them into each hub. Now all he has to do is wait for her to come to.

Year 5 month 4 Day 12

"…"

Jim fell asleep waiting for Proto to wake up again, Proto's new limbs begin to twitch and move everso slightly. Proto then opens her eyes and sits up and places her hoof against her head. she then looks at her new hoof then her other new hooves.

Proto, "It, it worked, Hhhhhehehehahahaha. IT WORKED!"

Jim is startled and is jolted awake, "HUH, what?"

Proto, "JIM, YOU DID IT, OH THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!"

Jim, "hehe, alright, now lets be careful, we need to do some tests to make sure everything working properly"

Jim helps Proto onto her hooves and stands her up. He lets go and she stands up by herself

Jim, "incredible"

Proto, "OHMYGOSH, IM GONNA GO RUNNING!"

Jim, "Wait hold on, we still need to make sure everything working"

Proto too caught up in her excitement runs towards the door and uses her magic to open the door. But instead ended just running into it.

Proto, "OW, what the?"

Proto then attempts to use her magic again, but her aura was extremely weak and could barely make the doorknob move, let alone open it.

Proto, "what, whats wrong with my magic?"

Jim, "the limbs are powered with your magic, naturally you will have weakened power, I thought you knew this."

Proto looks at her limbs again, her eyes grow and begin to water, her face gets extremely enraged and she slams her hoof onto Jim's floor causing it to break beneath her.

Proto, "You, you did this to me, you didn't help me, you just make me into a different freak"

Jim, "WHAT? No I never meant to harm you, I thought you knew this, I swear."

Proto runs back across the room incredibly fast and slams Jim onto the floor, pinning his neck down with her for-hoof"

Proto, "You made me like this, HOW DO YOU INTEND TO FIX IT?!"

Jim couldn't speak as he was being choked and couldn't breathe. Proto Simply stares back right into Jim's eyes, watching him pass out from lack of oxygen, Her eyes Red with rage. Then, Proto's flank begins to illuminate and shine a bright white. She lets Jim go and he takes in a deep breath. Proto looks back at her flank and watches as the glowing continued. Then a large flash of white light temporarily blinded them both, Proto Byte looks at her flank and see's her cutie mark. The head of a pony, with a computer motherboard as a brain.

 **END PART 1**


	2. Part 2 - War Crimes

Year 5 month 4 Day 13

"the operation was a success and to add onto it, I received my cutie mark. Guaranteed the method in which I earned it wasn't necessarily the most, civil. I lost control of myself, Something in me just caused me to snap at him. I can walk, thats what matters, and all I have to do is just think about walking instead of focusing my magic on each individual movement of my previous artificial limbs. These prosthetics are truly something to behold, and them being powered by magic really is a stroke of genius. I owe it all t…"

At that moment, Proto hears a knocking on her front door, she sets down her pen and parchment and walked over to it.

Proto, "Who's there?"

Jim, "its me, the dragon, er… Jim"

Proto, "Listen, yesterday, I-I wasn't myself."

Jim, "its okay, its completely understandable."

Proto, "No, something like this shouldn't be glossed over so suddenly, that was a serious issue."

Jim, "No, I mean your actions are literally understandable, the sheer excitement if you finally being able to walk made your adrenaline levels spike causing you to think irrationaly, then the sudden change of no magic with that spike made you perform as such. I'm an anatomist, I take situations like this quite literally, literally"

Proto, "Oh, okay then, well I'm still sorry"

Jim, "May I come in, I still need to do those checks."

Proto, "Oh, yeah, of course."

Proto opens the door and Jim walked in with a device of some kind in is claws.

Jim, "Well based off of yesterdays events its save to assume that the receptors are responding properly."

Proto, "Hhhh, I know this is more to ask of you, and after what happened yesterday I completely understand, but is there anyway to help with my magic?"

Jim looks at her and ignores her query for a moment.

Jim, "bend your fore right and hint left hooves"

Proto does so.

Jim, "A unicorn horn is much like a magnified glass, if you want to strengthen the beam you either increase the energy input, or you get a more powerful lens. Since your magic source is already being tapped into, the only way to increase your magic output is to get you a more powerful horn."

Proto, "huh, that sounds simple enough"

Jim, "the only problem being that ponies don't sell spare horns at the corner market. And that horns are internally wired directly into your prefrontal cortex. your horn is basically part of your brain, you can't separate a part of the brain from itself, it would kill you."

Proto hears this and is frightened by the thought, and she starts to come to terms with the fact that she will have to live with weak magic for the rest of her life.

Jim, "however…"

Proto, "however?" she responds with excitement.

Jim, "Thats insisting on removing the entirety of the horn, you can still focus a beam of light with a magnified glass, all you have to do is change the angle and find the focus point"

Proto, "So we change the lens, so to speak?"

Jim, "In theory, yes, in practice, not so much. What I can do is help you so you can use your magic as strong as it was, but only in a limited area, not changing the lens, moving the focus point"

Jim takes his claw and scratches on her hind leg.

Proto, "OW!"

Jim, "You wanted it hooked up to your nerves, being able to feel your legs definitely has its advantages, but you will also feel pain. feeling is feeling, theres no changing that."

Jim takes the device he brought with him and switches it on, he then pulls out a series of electrodes that were stored in the top and begins placing them across Proto's abdomen, he then takes out two rods with circles on each end and places them over her horn, one at the base and one at the tip.

Proto, "what is that?"

Jim, "Its a e-meter, it measures the electrical output of your nervous system, I've altered it to measure the frequencies of the magic system in unicorns. think of it as the setup I have back at my house, only I'm sacrificing ultimate precision for a compact design."

Jim flips it on and a wave meter begins to fluctuate on the front.

Jim, "You see that pen, to the best of your ability, try to levitate it."

Proto begins to try and use her magic, the aura surrounding her horn was weak, the aura surrounding the pen was weaker, the tip of the pen lifted ever-so slightly off the table. Jim looks at his altered e-meter and turns a knob near the base, a new wave appears on the display and he turns it until both waves lined up perfectly, he then pressed a button next to it and a shock of electricity went to her horn.

Proto, "OW!, Hey what the…"

Jim taps on her side then points to the pen. it was levitating perfectly off the table, Proto sees this and is able to wave it about to and fro. Jim then walked over to the the pen and grabs it out of her aura. he then places it a foot farther away from her.

Jim, "staying there, try lifting it now"

Proto's aura lights up around her horn, as strong as it was before her operation, but the pen stayed motionless.

Proto, "I don't get it, what happened?"

Jim, "I changed your focus point, take a step forward and try again."

Proto takes a step forward and sure enough the pen moved off the table, Proto was in full control of it, she then took a step backward and the pen dropped out of her magic onto the table.

Jim, "This device will let you change the focus of your horn, this first wave is your current magic output, this second wave is the one you will change it to. All you have to do is focus on a single object, line up these waves, then press this button to apply the change, the shock will never change, you will always feel that."

Jim sets the device on the table, Proto walks over to it and looks at the monitor, she then looks over at Jim and back at the e-meter. She then closes her eyes and smiles

Proto, "Hhh, thank you Jim."

Jim, "You're welcome, If you ever need anything, come to me first."

Jim walked towards the door and exits back to his house. Proto looks at the device and then at the pen on the table. She uses her magic to levitate it but is out of 'range' so she steps closer and it begins to levitate. Proto lets out a sigh, She looks around her apartment and sees her journal and parchment on the table.

Proto, "You can change the lens in theory, but in practice its a bit more complicated. We'll see about that."

Jim is walking down the street towards his house. as he gets near it he sees a stallion standing directly in front of the door.

Jim, "Excuse me sir, could you please move away from the door?"

Mysterious stallion, "Have you been in contact with a disabled pony recently?"

Jim, "excuse me?"

Mysterious stallion, "Do I have to repeat myself?"

Jim, "No, but I don't believe I have to answer you either."

Jim walked to his door to open it. The stallion stands in front of him blocking his path, he takes out a badge and holds it in front of Jim with his magic.

Mysterious stallion, "sorry, but i'm afraid you do."

Jim, "I've never heard of the Royal Xeno intelligence"

Mysterious stallion, "and you never will, now answer the question."

The stallion gets in close and stares directly into Jim's eyes. Jim cowers slightly.

Jim, "Uhh, yes."

the stallion backs away from Jim

Mysterious stallion, "What was her disability?"

Jim pauses for a moment to review his possible answers

Jim, "She was a quadruple amputee."

Mysterious stallion, "Amputee?"

Jim, "Hhhh, she's a quadriplegic"

Mysterious stallion, "Better, go on."

The stallion takes out a pipe and uses his magic to spark it

Jim, "thats all, thats her disability"

Mysterious stallion, "you sure about that?" He then exhales a cloud of smoke.

Jim waves his hand to clear the smoke from his face.

Jim, "Yes"

Mysterious stallion, "what about her horn?"

Jim pauses and tries to keep his cool.

Jim, "What about it?"

Mysterious stallion, "Don't try this with me, it isn't going to work, tell me what I need to know and i'll let you off easily" He then takes another puff from his pipe

Jim, "Her magic, its, well…"

The stallion stops mid puff and looks over at Jim

Mysterious stallion, "thats enough, your going to have to come with me."

Jim, "What? but I didn't even finish, and everything I've told you is true."

Mysterious Stallion "Then you'll have no problem telling the princess exactly what you've told me."

Jim face goes flat and he begins to back up slowly as if to run away. He then turns and tries to bolt, but the Stallion grabs him with his magic and proceeds to carry him to the castle.

The inside of the castle is extremely bright, they pass through multiple doorways until they reach the gaping opening that is the Royal Throne Room. Princess Celestia is perched in her throne, a pile of scrolls lay next to her. There is a pony next to her as well, as the stallion enter with Jim, she asked the pony next to her to leave them.

Celestia, "Captain Seize, and who is this?"

Seize, "A dragon who aided subject #19, I believe she will soon discover, we must put her on a threat level 10."

Celestia, "Lets not be too rash yet, lets see just how much damage has been done."

Celestia looks at Jim with a very scornful look

Celestia, "State your name"

Jim, "Uhhh, …Jim"

Celestia, "Jim? really?"

Jim, "…Yeah."

Celestia chuckles slightly, she tries to keep it to herself but Jim can see it blatantly clear.

Celestia, "okay then, Jim Phh hehe. *cough* *sniff* Hhhh, What is your relation to Proto Byte?"

Jim, "She was offering a position for an assistant, I took it up and I noticed that she was a quadriplegic, we talked and the subject of my hobbies came up, to her interest, that hobby is being a magic analyst. so stuff led to things and… I made her a working pair of autonomous prosthetic limbs"

The room grew silent, Celestia just stared at Jim, as if in shock. after a short amount of time, she spoke.

Celestia, "well this won't do, Captain, take him out back and put a spear in his skull. were done here"

Captain Seize grabbed Jim with his magic and started to walk out of the throne room.

Jim, "WAIT, WHAT? NO, PRINCESS YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, I DON'T UNDERSTAND, WHAT DID I DO WRONG?!"

Celestia picked up a scroll from the pile next to her and began reading it

Celestia, "burn the body, this dragon never existed."

The path behind the castle stank of death and rotten cake, bones of ponies lay in piles against the high castle walls, then at the end of one corridor there lay a stained red spot against the wall, a bucket of spears, and a lit torch. Seize set down Jim in front of the stained spot and used his magic to grab a spear, he then pointed the head directly at Jim's temple and looked directly down the shaft at Jim's forehead.

Seize, "Any last words?"

Jim, "Yeah a few, like, oh I dunno, HOW COME MAKING A PAIR OF MAGIC POWERED LIMBS FOR A QUADRIPLEGIC GETS ME THE DEATH PENALTY?!"

Seize, "Eh, their your words, whatever floats your boat man."

Seize used his magic and drew back the spear. Jim bared down and slammed his eyes shut, Seize threw the spear dead center at Jim's forehead.

Seize, "Did you say 'magic powered limbs'?"

Jim, scared out of his mind opened his eye and peeks at Seize, a very sharp pointed spear head was not but a centimeter from his eyeball. in his fear, Jim attempted to answer

Jim, "Uhhhh, y-yeah"

Seize backed the spear away from Jim and stood it on its back next to himself.

Seize, "explain."

Jim, "Oh, uhh, well, the limbs draw power from her internal magic producing organ and transfers it into electrical energy for use. the whole process really puts a damper on her magic, she could barely lift a tissue."

Seize stared at him, his face flat, then over a few seconds, a grin starts to form and he bursts out laughing.

Seize, "AHAHAHAHAHAHA" he falls on his back in sheer amusement. "HAHAHAH OH MAN BRO, YOU DUDE, AHAHAHAHAHA!"

Jim confused tries to go along with it

Jim, "Hehe, yeah, me bro"

Seize, "AHAHAHA, *sniff* Oh oh, okay, I'm chill, haaaaaa, okay. So she can't even use her magic? well she can but like she might as well not be able to?"

Jim, "yeah, pretty much."

Seize, "oh, man dude, I am sorry, listen were cool right?"

Jim, "Uhh, yeah I guess so, your not gonna, kill me, right?"

Seize, "what? Nah, nah were good"

Jim, "okay, whoooo, that scared me."

Seize, "your face man, hehe. WAIT!"

Jim, "what?"

Seize, "what do you mean 'could'?"

Jim, "oh well she was kind've sad that she couldn't use her standard magic so I helped her out and gave her a device that let her focus her magic."

Seize, "Oooo, t, not good."

Seize picked up the spear and aimed it at Jim's head again

Jim, "WAIT WAIT WAIT!"

Seize, "Hmm?"

Jim, "The device only lets her use it in a very limited range and she has to basically electrocute herself if she wants to change the range."

Seize loweres the spear a little but still looks at Jim as if he's still hiding something.

Jim, "And it doesn't strengthen her beam, it just focuses it, she can only use one thing at a time inside her aura."

Seize, "Hmmm"

Seize ponders this for a bit then nods his head

Seize, "Aight, your good"

Jim, "Phew, oh man"

Seize gets in extremely close to Jim and points the spear at his head.

Seize, "Right?"

Jim, "Right."

Seize backs up.

Seize, "Good."

The two walk back into the castle. As they enter the main throne room, Celestia looks over at the two.

Celestia, "I thought I ordered him to be turned into a dragon roast, what changed?"

Seize, "its okay princess, the limbs he made draws power from Subject #19's magic, she's weaker now than she ever was."

Celeste's eyes grow large in shock.

Celestia, "well than, good job Dr. J"

Jim, "thanks!" He stated with pride. He then realized what she called him. He then spoke sarcastically "it was no trouble."

Celestia, "well that takes her off the list, lets see here, how about subject #57?"

Seize, "Cadence's baby might be a naturally born alicorn, but we are monitoring her closely, we'll inform you if she grows any more powerful."

Celestia, "good good" She pauses and looks at Jim, "what about him?"

Seize looks over at Jim, "Oh, I don't think he poses any threat, RIGHT?"

Jim, "R-right."

Seize, "See?"

Celestia, "Eh, whatever."

Jim, "Sooo, can I go or, what?"

Celestia, "yeah you can go, OH, Seize, go with him, make sure his claims are true, If anything is off, kill him"

Jim takes a nervous gulp.

Seize, "You got it Princess, c'mon buddy"

Jim, "hooray."

Proto spent hours analyzing the various possibilities for a new horn design. She now was on route to Jim's house to build a possible prototype. Upon arriving, she knocked on the door and noticed there was no one home, she went inside regardless.

Proto, "Hello? Jim?, I have a design for you to look at."

Proto looked over to the table and saw multiple layouts of the pony anatomy, she walked closer to be in range for her focus magic, she cleared the others out of the way to reveal the one showing the nervous systems of unicorns. She walked up to the table and looked at the layout of the nerves surrounding the horn. There was text pointing to the inside of the horn.

Proto read the text allowed to herself, "'the horn grows much like a tooth, its metabolism far slower and it seizes growth around the age of 16. it is composed of organic crystals which form a prism to focus and contract pure magic into the spells the subject wishes to use.' So its a crystal prism, and much like any prism, in order to increase the the beam when a light is shown through it, you simply make it longer."

Proto walked over to the series of computers near the back of the main room and finds a series of spare electrode cords. She also finds a bottle of sedative and a needle. Proto pulls the e-reader from her saddlebag and hooks it up to her horn. She looked at the waves on the display then pressed the button shocking her and locking the focus for her magic, which was directly on her head. She then walked over to the table and laid out her blueprint right next to the nerve layout of unicorns.

Proto, "Time to Change the lens."

Luna had lowered the sun and rose the moon, night began to fall over Canterlot, Jim and Seize were walking down the street towards Proto's house.

Seize, "you are telling the truth right? this isn't some massive setup, and when we get there your gonna turn on me and its gonna cause some major disturbance"

Jim replies as if this is the 50th time he's answered the question. For perspective, he had to answer that question or a question that was 99% similar to it exactly 47 times since they left the castle.

Jim, "No."

Seize, "Okay cool."

They reach Proto's apartment, Jim goes ahead and knocks on the door.

Jim, "Proto, its me, Jim."

Silence. Jim knocks again

Jim, "Proto? hellooooo. she must not be home."

Seize, "a likely alibi."

Jim rolls his eyes, "c'mon, I think I know where she is."

Jim leads the way towards his house.

Seize, "this is your house."

Jim, "Yeah I know, I literally live here, do you think I wouldn't know that?"

Seize, "Geez man, i'm just, y'know"

Jim gets slightly hostile, "Y'know what? no no go ahead"

Seize, "Nah, its- its nothing"

Jim, "awe c'mon, you were so sure of yourself just a moment ago."

Seize, "Geez bro, your really harshing my vibe, could you just calm down a tad man"

Jim, "Wh, BRO? MAN? VIBE?! What are you a secret agent or a Lacrosse player?"

A crash is heard inside of Jim's house, they stop their little peeing contest and look towards the door.

Jim, "Told ya she was in there."

Jim goes over to open the door.

Seize, "wait, hold up, something doesn't seem right."

Jim, "oh c'mon I already told you, she's harmless"

Jim opens the door and the two look inside, their faces go flat and their eyes shrink to the size of pebbles, inside was Proto, her horn in a vice, she was backing up, her hooves grinding into the floor, then like a baby tooth, her horn pops out of her skull, the veins exposed and still soaked in blood. Proto uses her limited magic to cast a cut spell at the base of her exposed horn, her nerves sag and her horn lay gripped and torn in a vice. Proto takes a prosthetic hub and places it over her nerves, little mechanisms extent and grab individual nerve endings. A large needle extends out of the hub and she lowers her nerves back into her skull and sat the hub above the hole where her horn once sat. she then rammed her head against the wall of Jim's house smashing the hub into place inside Her skull. she then walked over to the table and using her hooves, picked up a white rod of some kind, it extended nearly a foot and 1/2 out, nearly 3x as long as the average unicorn horn. going up from the base was a series clear rods which looked like crystal along with a series of magnified glasses surrounding the crystal segments, in a simple click, she placed the rod into the hub, locking it in place. At that moment she noticed the two staring directly at her, Proto's face and prosthetic limbs stained with her own blood. A single stream rolled down Proto's face as she stared directly at Jim and Seize. Then a very bright white aura surrounded the rod on her head, it shined so bright that it temporarily blinded both Jim and Seize. Then in an instant the light dissipated and nothing but a burn mark and a blood stain remained of where Proto stood, she had teleported away.

Seize and Jim lay dumbfounded, in complete shock as to what they just witnessed. Seize then spoke.

Seize, "Yeah, sorry buddy but you're gonna have to come with me."

 **END PART 2**


	3. Part 3 - Secrecy

Year 5 Month 4 Day 14

"Its finished, I'm normal, I am complete, I have working legs, a working horn, my cutie mark, a career, a home. I am, happy."

Proto sets the pen down next to her journal pages. The white aura surrounding her new horn dims. Her face is still stained with blood, her legs splattered red. She walked over to her work table and looks at the synthesizer motherboard. She picks up her soldering iron with her magic and takes a metal lead and completes a circuit across the board. She then picks it up and places in a box to be mailed back to its owner in Ponyville. She walks over to a mirror hanging in her bathroom and looks at herself in the mirror. The white and red of her new horn, the streams of blood stained in her coat.

Proto, "Now all I have to do is look the part."

The inside of the Castles main chambers are vast and silent. Jim stands front and center in front of a disappointed Celestia. Captain Seize stands a bit behind Jim and spaces out looking at the large stained glass murals around the hall.

Celestia, "Well?"

Jim, "huh?"

Seize, "what?"

Celestia, "you went out to look for Proto, then you just came back in here expecting me to know what happened, something happened right? This isn't one of your pranks is it Seize, I hate those."

Seize, "Something, yes. Prank, no."

Celestia, "well then what's the something that happened?"

Jim, "Well, heh, ya see the funny thing is…"

Seize, "shut up Jim, before you get us both killed, I'm gonna make the assumption that you had nothing to do with, that."

Jim, "I swear I had no idea that was going to happen" Jim turns to Celestia, "I didn't, I promise"

Celestia, "I don't even know what happened, What Happened?"

Seize, "Subject #19 acquired herself some advanced tech and 'manufactured' herself a new horn, she then used that horn to teleport away, I have agents scanning the streets of Canterlot as we speak"

Celestia, "Mmm, and what made you think you telling me would make your punishment any less severe?"

Jim and Seize's faces go flat in terror, posted royal guard move away from their posts along the walls of the hall and move in towards them. Celestia holds up her hoof and the guards stop their advance towards Seize and Jim.

Celestia, "find her, suppress her, and bring her here. Jim you go with him."

Seize, "aww c'mot tia"

Celestia, "AH AH, nobody tia's tia, now go before I change my mind"

Jim and seize turn around and leave the hall as quick as they could.

Outside of the castle, Jim and Seize stop to catch their breath after navigating the castle.

Jim, " *pant* *wheez* Jeez, that place is a freaking maze"

Seize, " *pant* *pant* I know *wheeze* I hate trying to find the bathroom in there, its virtually impossible. *pant* *pant* I found it one time, I got lost for 2 hours trying to get out."

Jim, " *pant* what out of the castle?"

Seize, "No *wheez* out of the bathroom. Whhhhhhhoooo, okay, so. where to first?"

Jim, "wha, I DUNNO! Don't you have agents looking around Canterlot?"

Seize, "no *pant* do you have any *pant* idea how hard it is to organize a search party with my organization, *pant* *pant* Too freaking, thats how hard."

Jim, "so you just straight up lied to Celestia"

Seize, "If god was your boss, you'd want to make her feel safe too, trust me, you don't want to see Tia when she's pissed"

Jim, "well okay then, locations…I dunno, her apartment?"

Seize, "no thats too obvious, she wouldn't go there"

Jim, "then I don't know"

Seize, "what we need is a place to think"

They start walking down the street towards the center of town, Seize then leads Jim to a small corner side store.

Jim, "Canterlot Cakes? aren't we supposed to be doing something, I don't know, productive"

Seize, "this is productive, I give them money, they produce cake, thats how this works. now sit down, you've been through a lot recently"

Jim and Seize sit down at a table inside the store, a waitress comes over to them.

Waitress, "can I get you gents anything?"

Seize, "yeah, I'll have the vanilla hay cheesecake, and my friend here will take a tray of blueberry sapphire cupcakes.

Jim's eyes go wide at the thought of the cupcakes.

Jim, "ehh, I suppose Proto can wait."

Waitress, "Alright i'll be right back with those for you."

Seize, "so, whats your deal man?"

Jim, "my deal?" he rolls his eyes "I moved here from Mainhattan about 6 months ago, I've been working as an independent analyst getting money from grants on my research. I still need to find a long term accommodation in Cloudsdale if I am to complete my research."

Seize, "Lame, what I meant was, whats your 'deal', man?"

Jim, "I… What?"

Seize, "Y'know man, is there a Mrs. Jim?"

Jim's eyes go half mast and he cringes to the thought of the question, he face palms in pure disgust.

Jim, "please tell me you're kidding"

Seize, "I am 100% serious man."

Jim, "no…. just, no. My turn"

Seize, "aww c'mon dude really? freaking Tia you're such a buzzkill, alright go ahead."

The waitress comes over to the table with the cakes.

Jim picks up a cupcake, "What did Proto do?" He takes a bite of the cupcake and his eyes go wide, "sweet Celestia"

Seize, "sorry thats classified, literally anything else go right ahead"

Jim, "nope" He takes another bite, (muffled) "thats my question, now answer it"

Seize, "I'm gonna go with, no"

Jim, "Do it or i'm telling Tia you lied to her"

Seize, "you slippery reptile" he pauses and reviews his possible options, "I think your bluffing"

Jim looks around the store and sees a delivery pony about to leave the store with some cakes.

Jim, "excuse me, where are you headed with those cakes"

Delivery pony, "these fine beauties are going straight to Canterlot Castle"

Jim, "what a coincidence" He gives Seize a wide evil grin. he then takes a napkin and writes a letter on it.

Jim, "do you think you could give this to some pony who can take it to the Princess, Tell them its from Captain Seize."

Seize, "he's not Captain Seize, I am."

Jim, "see, now be quick about it this is urgent"

Seize's face goes flat and he grits his teeth.

Delivery pony, "You got it Mr. Seize"

He outstretches his hoof to receive the letter.

Seize, "WAIT WAIT!, Uhh, Jim, lets talk about this."

Jim, "oh pony feathers , this letter doesn't have a seal, sorry sir, maybe some other time."

Delivery pony, "ehhh, okay then." he then leaves the store to deliver the cakes.

Seize, "I hate you"

Jim, "yeah yeah that great, now tell me what she did."

Seize lets out a sigh, "fine, BUT IF YOU TELL ANYPONY, I WILL PERSONALLY…"

Jim, "blah blah I'm a traitor blah blah you'll kill me blah, hurry up already"

Seize, "You ever find it weird that she wanted new limbs Extremely Badly?"

Jim, "I feel like this has a point, could we just get to that?"

Seize, "your lucky enough i'm giving you this information in the first place, the least you could do is go along with the story"

Jim, "fine… Well, actually, now that you mention it… No, I don't find it weird whatsoever that a quadriplegic from birth would want to walk"

Seize, "But she could walk, she had her wooden prosthetics and used her magic to walk."

Jim, "yeah but doing so impaired her from using her magic while simply standing up because if she did she would lose focus on her limbs."

Seize, "Then how does she keep a steady job?"

Jim, "I… well" Jim ponders this for a moment, "with assistants, she hired me as an assistant, her pay was pretty terrible so I can see why she may have had to go through a lot."

Seize, "oh she went through a lot all right, you're the lucky one"

Jim, "what do you mean?"

Seize, "an electrical engineer, here in Canterlot, the city of unicorns, look around, do you see one electrical appliance?"

Jim looked around the store, he was right, the oven in the back was fueled by fire and sparked by unicorn magic, the light posts outside were lanterns, and now that he thinks about it, he had to go through a lot of hassle in order to set up electricity in his house.

Seize, "the last thing Canterlot needs is an electrical engineer. So you tell me, why is she here?"

Jim ponders the question, "I was going to be a test subject?, no, NO, that doesn't make sense, I'm a dragon, my nervous system is completely different from a ponies."

Seize, "you're right."

Jim, "What?"

Seize, "you weren't going to be a test subject, you were just going to be her assistant. I should know, I wiped her memory of her previous 'assistants'."

Jim, "wh- why?"

Seize, "to see if she would choose a different path, its blatantly clear now that its not the case, instead of finding other ponies, she just used herself, but pretty soon, she's going to want to expand, she's going to want more, she'll want to try things that to another pony might prove fatal if done improperly."

Jim, "her, her previous assistants were, were…"

Seize, "experiments, yes, they were tests of her early models, she quite literally would do anything to walk, including kill, multiple times."

Jim, "Then why the heck is she still alive, its obvious she's dangerous"

Seize, "Because even though her methods are incredibly unorthodox, her intentions would be quite helpful across Equestria. Working autonomous prosthetics, do you know how many lives we could better with that kind of technology. And now a working prosthetic horn, the medical applications aside, imagine what that could do to our military."

Jim, "so that's what she is, a walking militia!"

Seize, "don't go on her side, do you have any ideas the kind of horrid things she did to ponies in the past."

Jim, "but those are gone right, you wiped her memory of all that, so what makes you think she'll want more?"

At that moment a bright flash of white light can be seen in the distance outside the shop, followed by a massive explosion. the mushroom cloud extended far into the sky, screams could then be heard in the distance. Jim turns slowly away from the scene outside the shop, He reaches out and grabs another cupcake off the table and begins eating it slowly. He swallows then puts it back down.

Jim, "is that the direction of the Canterlot library?"

Seize, "yep"

Jim, "her apartment is right next to it, could be a coincidence."

Another large explosion is seen in the distance followed by more horrifying screams. Jim reaches out and takes another bite of his cupcake, chews, swallows, then sets it down again.

Jim, "we should go"

Seize, "agreed"

Jim and Seize leave a pile of bits on the table and run out of the store towards Canterlot library.

Proto stands in front of a mirror looking at the machined work of her legs and horn, she turns away and looks at her work table. On it sits a chunk of pure crystal, using her magic, she cuts it up into a 2 foot long cone with a very pony tip. She then hollowed out the inside of the cone and separated it into sections. Next to the crystal laid a metal and an extender mechanism in the center, she organizes the sections of crystal on top of one another over the metal base. the extender mechanism reaches out and grabs onto each individual section. Proto then uses her magic to break each section into vertical thirds around the base. Each third is grabbed by the extender mechanism and organizes them into a compact cone about the height of a normal unicorn horn, at the top sat the sharp vertex of the original cone. the metal base was hooked up to a switch, she flicks it on and the extender made the structure grow to its original 2 foot length in a matter of seconds, flicking it off, it shrinks back to its compact size. She walked over to the wall and places her current horn into a vice, she twists her head and the horn detaches from its hub in her skull. she then walked over to the table and grabbed the new horn with her hooves and clicked it into place. The metal base of her new horn outstretched extra grips to the hub to make a more firm grasp on her head. The new horn glows a bright white like her other one, with a quick thought, she extends the horn and it snaps into its 2 foot long length in a matter of seconds. She extends and contracts it a few times to make sure it was working properly, with it fully extended, she walked over to the vice holding her old horn

Proto, "theres no need for this old thing anymore"

Her aura lights up around her horn and around her old horn, it levitates in front of her, then in a quick instant, the old horn collapses in on itself, Proto continues to compress it until it was the size of a marble. she lets it go and it clacks on her floor. She retracts her horn again and uses her magic to pull out a jar from her chest in the corner of the room. The jar contains a thick cloud of some kind, its labeled 'Nanites'. She uncaps the jar and a large cloud envelopes the room, in the center of the cloud a white light shines from Proto's horn, the cloud grew thinner and thinner as they grouped around her prosthetics. Once the cloud complete dissipated, Proto walked to her bathroom mirror, her horn and legs looked, like the rest of her body, they looked like a normal ponies legs and horn, her legs had muscle tone and veins, her horn had curves and a spiral curling up to its vertex. Proto sees her reflection and begins to cry, she notices this and puts her hoof up to her eye, even water ran over her hoof as if it were real skin and fur. She grins with happiness and chuckles at the beauty of it all.

Proto, "Time to go out on the town"

She walked over to her door and put a hat and scarf on, she then steps outside and takes a deep breath of fresh air. Out of the corner of her eye she sees a pair of white unicorn stallions, she looks over and sees that they are royal guard accompanying Princess Celestia to the Canterlot library. As they walked towards the entrance one of the guards caught Proto staring.

Royal Guard, "is there a problem miss?"

Celectia hears the guard and looks over

Celestia, "Hmm?"

She then looks at Proto and instantly recognizes her.

Celestia, "YOU!"

Proto, "huh?"

Celestia's horn began to grow a bright yellow. Proto stepped back slowly in fear.

Celestia, "YOU'RE COMING WITH ME!"

Celestia lets loose a massive beam of magic energy at Proto. Proto shuts her eyes in fear of the incoming beam. Then, out of a sheer force of instinct, her horn extends out of the Nanite shell that coated it. It locked into place and her magic created a shield spell in front of the beam, The two connected and a massive amount of energy exploded upwards. Proto slowly opens her eyes and sees the street charred all around her, except where she was standing. She then looked at herself to make sure she was okay, the nanite shell that coated her legs and horn formed a belt around her abdomen. Ponies that weren't in agony from burn marks stared at Proto in shock and fear of her power. Celestia stunned that her attack was blocked began to charge another attack. Proto used a teleportation spell and teleported behind Celestia. Celestia reacted quickly and turned her head aiming her horn at Proto then quickly fired. Proto used another Shield spell and successfully blocked the second attack as well. Celestia, thoroughly mad, grit her teeth and charged a third attack. but while she was charging her attack, Proto countered and boosted off the ground using her magic energized prosthetics. Her horn created a cone of magic around it and she rammed into Celestia at an incredible speed. The recoil sent Celestia flying into the air, but she quickly came to her senses and spread her great wings, creating a shadow that cast over Proto. Proto looked up at Celestia, in wonder and in awe. She looked at the size of her wings, the power of them, the power of her. Then suddenly the belt of nanites around Proto molded themselves into a pair of metallic wings. Celestia locked eyes with Proto and saw the wings. Proto extended the wings straight upwards and thrust them down with a great amount of force, sending her high into the air, eye level with Celestia. Jim and Seize arrive and see them in the air. Jim is in awe of Proto's wings.

Celestia, "You've already done enough damage, come quietly or face extended consequences"

Proto, "I've done damage? you were the one who attacked me, I merely defended myself, you see that" Proto points her hoof at the ground, Ponies scramble in the burning chaos that was Celestia's Royal Power. Ponies lie unconscious, some running with severe burns screaming in pain, a hospital cart finally arrives to aid in the devastation, fire pegasi fly overhead to put out the fires.

Proto, "This isn't my doing Princess Celestia, this is yours."

Celestia stares at the carnage, a tear is visible in her eye in realization of what she had done. She attempts to bare down and face Proto.

Celestia, "It was only because of your actions that I preformed so irrationally."

Proto, "What are you talking about, what have I done to harm you prior to this. to any pony? You tell me!"

Celestia becomes truly enraged. Proto replies calmly

Proto, "you can't can you." she shakes her head, "So much for the great and honorable Celestia, enjoy trying to explain this little fiasco to your burning subjects."

Proto's horn illuminated with its white aura, it surrounds her and she teleports away.

Celestia slumps her head in anguish and defeat, she sees Seize and Jim starring up at her with fear in their eyes. In her shame, she spreads her wings and flies back to the castle.

Year 5 Month 4 Day 15

"The past 24 hours have been something to behold, The nanites especially are strange. I programmed them to adhere to the will of my magic, but for them to create a working pair of robotic wings? it makes no sense. Why had they performed in that manner? Its as if they were mending themselves to my innermost thoughts,. For now I've ceased to use them until I can perform further tests. Onto the battle, firstly, I fought Celestia and didn't die, that right there is something to praise all in itself. But over all, it was wrong, I acted too slowly, I defended myself, but I had plenty of time to not just defend, but retaliate. What I need is a way to see actions while they are being performed and react accordingly. The fight is far from over, and if i'm to face Celestia again, I am going to need all the help I can get."

Proto set down her pen and parchment onto the ground with her magic. She had very little time to grab her things from her apartment before Celestia would see her. She grabbed all she could and put them in her saddlebag; her journal and extra parchment, her soldering iron, a hoof heard mirror, an optical video cord, a camera lens, and a small box of spare wires and a few blank silicon motherboards. She set her saddle bag on the floor of the cave she is currently call home. She walked over to a puddle and looked at her reflection and splashed the water, she stared as the ripples broke the image and moved over her face. Her eyes widened a bit, she walked over to her saddle bag and took out her hoof heard mirror. She looked at her reflection and stared at her iris.

Proto, "I need to see my targets actions and be able to react accordingly."

She took her hoof and pulled down her eyelid to look at her full eye. She then looked over in her saddlebag and saw the camera lens, the optic cord, and the box of various electrical components. A grin grew across her face.

Proto, "And I believe I know just how to do it."

 **END PART 3**


	4. Part 4 - Banned from Equestria

Year 5 Month 4 Day 16

"I couldn't have been more wrong, quite literally what was I thinking? I put together the optic sensor, then I attempted to install it. Luckily I stopped before I caused too much damage to my eye. I don't even have any pain killers of any kind, I was going to install it dry. What I need is Jim's inventory of pony biology, or some pony willing to test out my sensor. But who in the name of Twilight would do something like that? Oh and I switched profits, makes sense since my last one tried to kill me."

Proto was sitting on the floor of the cave, she set down the pen and parchment. A rough prototype of her 'optic analyzer' sat beside her made out of a camera lens, a vision circuit, a target circuit, and an optical cord which would connect to her optic nerve. She looked at it and then took her hoof heald mirror to look at her eye. It was bloodshot from her failed attempt to remove it.

Proto, "Canterlot is out of the question, they'd be looking for me like Celestia finding a piece of cake, in other words, too freaking much, thats how much they'd be looking for me."

Proto slumped her head and pondered how she would test her optic sensor.

Proto, "Might as well see if there are any towns nearby, I teleported here not knowing where here is."

Proto was about to leave the cave but then looked at her prosthetics, realizing that a pony with robotic legs would stand out more than an alicorn in a field of earth ponies, she grabbed her jar of nanites. Even though it was risky to use them for camouflage after the incident with Celestia, she believed it was worth the risk. she opened the jar and the cloud expanded around the room, Her magic aura shined through the cloud and they slowly began to surround her prosthetics. The cloud dissipated and she walked out of the cave. The entrance to the cavern was in the top of a small hill, Proto looked around and saw a small settlement in the distance. With her saddlebag in tow holding her optic sensor and the remaining electronics, she set off.

Seize, "you need to let us in, I'm the lead investigator for this case"

Royal Guard, "I'm sorry, Celestia isn't seeing any pony at the moment, its going to have to wait"

Seize, "this is pointless"

Seize and jim walked away from the main entrance to Canterlot Castle and they proceeded towards the center of town.

Jim, "so what now?"

Seize, "what we need is a place to think"

Jim and Seize sit down at a table inside of Canterlot Cakes, Seize's eyes are darting left and right trying to think of a possible solution to this epidemic. Jim's elbow rests on the table, his paw supporting his head, his eyes were at half mast as he slowly ate a cupcake.

Seize, "What we need is an alicorn willing to help us."

Jim, " *munch* *munch* well you've got 4 to choose from, make that 5 if you count Cadence's baby.

Seize, "Celesita is out, mary sue's filly is out, Mary sue herself is too far away"

Jim, "That leaves Luna and Twilight, Luna would be ideal, any idea where she is?"

Seize, "Sweet Celestia if I know, but you're right, Luna is the one we really need for this."

Jim, "Too bad we don't know where she is, so then that leaves Twilight in merry little Ponyville."

Seize, "Yeah, okay then, right lets go talk to her"

Jim, "why do we need an alicorn in the first place?"

Seize, "do you plan on taking on Proto by yourself, cause I don't."

Jim, "good point."

Jim leaves a few bits on the table and the two walk out of the store. As they round the corner to head to the train station, Luna comes and enters the store.

Luna, "BRING ME YOUR BEST SWEET BREADS MY LOYAL SUBJECTS!"

The ponies in the store cover their ears from the sheer volume of her voice.

Luna, "YOU THERE" she points to the pony behind the register "WHAT KIND OF SWEET BREAD WOULD YOU RECOMMEND TO ME, LUNA!"

Cashier, "well, uhh, I suggest the…"

Luna, "I SHALL TAKE THEM, BRING ME THE BREADS!"

Seize and Jim arrive in Ponyville, Jim pulls out a map to see where Twilighs castle is.

Jim, "according to this, Twilights castle is in this direction"

Seize, "I know, its pretty hard to miss"

Jim looks up from the map, the large purple crystal towers over all the other buildings surrounding it.

Jim, "well theres that."

They arrive at the main doors of the castle, Seize walked up and knocks.

Seize, "hello?, Princess Twilight? My name is Captain Seize, I'm an associate of Princess Celestia, could we have a word please?"

After a moment of silence, they hear hoof steps behind the door, the door cracks open and a purple unicorn stood in the doorway.

Jim, "Uhh, is Twilight here?"

Starlight Glimmer, "Sorry, she's off on a friendship mission over in southern Equestria, can I do anything for you?"

Seize looks closely at Starlight, "Hmm, horn, no wings. Nope, your useless to us, c'mon Jim, if were quick maybe we can catch the next train to the Crystal Empire"

Starlight, "Hey, hold up a second, you can't just gloss over me like that"

Seize turns around and looks at Starlight, "really? give me a reason why."

Starlight, "well for starters, i'm just as powerful as Twilight"

Seize, "doubtful"

Starlight's horn begins to glow with her aura, she then quickly fired a beam and encased Seize in crystal.

Jim, "Okay you got my attention, anything else"

Starlight, "just because I don't have wings doesn't mean I can't fly"

Starlight surrounds herself in her aura and begins to float above the ground. Jim see's this and raises an eyebrow then nods his head in approval.

Jim, "well you pass my test, one last thing though"

Jim points at Seize, still encased in crystal, Starlight uses her magic and fires a second beam breaking Seize free of his crystal prison.

Seize, "okay, you got my attention, but can you, SURPRISE!"

Seize fires a beam off his magic at starlight, she uses a shield spell and easily blocks the attack.

Starlight, "anything else?"

Jim and Seize look at each other, Seize shrugs, Jim nods.

Seize, "alright your in"

Starlight, "cool, so, what is it i'm doing?"

Upon arriving at the settlement, Proto notices how sad the ponies around her were, they sat outside of raggedy shacks, she couldn't find one pony in the town with a smile on their face. Proto walks up to a sales pony.

Proto, "What happened here?"

Sales pony, "our crops are all but withered away, we've been hungry and without work for a few months now what we have here is the last of our crop, they were the best pears around, now their all but gone. care for one?"

she looked at the pears, they were rotting from the outside in, but out of sympathy, she bought one

Proto, "I know this sounds like a ridiculous question, but where is here?"

Sales pony, "your in the town of Peardale, most of the residence have all but left to find work over in Ponyville, the closest town over. Us few that remain are just waiting in hope that something will change."

Seize, "ma'am, today might just be your lucky day, I just have one question for you"

The sales pony, who Proto found was named Sugar Fuzz, lead her to a shack near the outskirts of town, they walked up to the door and Sugar knocked. Two ponies stood at the doorway both with very glum looks on their faces, between them stood a pear green colt with an eyepatch on.

Parent Mare, "Sugar, its nice to see you"

Sugar Fuzz, "Hello Mable, this here is Proto, she says that she can help out the trees."

Mable Pear, "Really? you'd help us, Oh thank you."

Sugar, "she just has one request"

Mable, "I'm sorry miss, but after our crop died, we lost all our bits to try and feed our fillies and colts."

Proto, "I don't want money, I just want to help"

Mable, "well, then what's your request?"

Proto steps forward and stoops down to look at the half blind colt.

Proto, "how would you like to see again?"

Starlight, Jim, and Seize were sitting at a table at Sugarcane Corner, Mrs. cake came out with a tray of cupcakes.

Starlight, "so, this Proto actually fought Celestia, and didn't die instantly?"

Seize, "I know right? crazy stuff"

Jim, "will you focus, okay starlight, we need your help in order to catch her"

Starlight, "so I'm gonna be your work horse while you grab and bag her and get all the credit, in which way does this benefit me? As far as I can tell this mares not one to mess with"

Seize, "okay fine, what do you want?"

Starlight gains a big smile across her face, "I'm gonna need unrestricted access to the Canterlot archives, I'm gonna need spell books, potion recipes, the works, also I want a General rank in the Royal Guard with full benefits"

Seize pauses for a moment to review his options, "I'll give you access to the main spell vault for 20 minutes, the inner vault is off limits, no potions. You'll be ranked a Squad leader, you'll have 10 guards at your disposal, but no military benefits."

Starlight, "well this was a fat waste of my time"

Seize, "what we could also do is report directly to Celestia that you refused a Draft command from a Captain in the Royal Guard, the minimum sentence is 5 years in the crystal keep beneath the castle. But I think I could work my magic and get you to stay longer"

Starlight stops in her tracks, she turns around and gets right in Seize's face

Seize, "you think your tough punk, you have no idea what I'm capable of, forget me, i'll keep you in a crystal ball for the rest off your natural life, i'll hang you above the chandelier in Twilights castle, it'll do wonders in the summer when the sun shines through and hits your frozen flesh"

Seize takes the threat in, He sees no hesitation from her to actually do it.

Seize, "unrestricted access to the main magic vault"

Starlight, "both, inner and outer vaults"

Seize, "fine, both. Rank of lieutenant, 2 spots above squad leader"

Starlight, "no, make me a captain"

Seize, "forget you, I'm outta here"

Starlight uses her magic and surrounds Seize's hoof in solid crystal causing it to stick to the ground

Starlight, "theres a lot more where that came from"

Jim, "just do it."

Seize grunts in anger, "fine, Captain Glimmer it is"

Starlight, "and…"

Seize, "and you'll receive full military benefits with your ranking"

Starlight, "there" she fires another beam of magic at the crystal freeing Seize, "was that so hard?"

Jim, "I like her"

Seize, "I hate you both"

At that moment a large white glow appeared far in the distance in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres, it continues for about 30 seconds and the slowly dissipates.

Seize, "okay captain, heres your first assignment, catch us a cyborg."

The 3 run into the town of Peardale, besides the shacks, everything else in the town was lush and green. Bright pair trees were all around the shacks, ponies were harvesting them left and right, and all of them had large grins on their faces. In the center of the town was a family, between them was a pear green colt with two bright green eyes. The 3 walk up to the family.

Seize, "What happened here?"

Mable Pear, "a miracle is what happened here, after nearly 3 months of no crops, the trees came back to life, we owe it all to that kind yellow unicorn"

Jim, "yellow unicorn?"

Parent Stallion, "oh yes, she used a spell on our trees and they all srang back to life, it was incredible"

Mable, "and lets not forget the best miracle of all" She looks down at her son, his eyes glistening in the sun and with a massive smile on his face."

Starlight, "she gave you a kid?"

Mable, "what, no she helped him see again"

Seize, "pardon?"

Mable, "show them sweetie"

The green colt stepped forward and turned his left eye towards the 3 of them, he opened his eye as wide as he could, the then took his hoof an pressed it to the side of his face. The colts pupil began decaying, it just started disappearing, ore and more up it until his entire eye disappeared away like a shell cracking. Underneath was a large camera lens, it focused in and out as it took in light, he turned away and showed the entire eye, it moves with his other eye and it focused on objects just like a norma eye. He then took his hoof away from the side of his face and the shell reformed around his eye, after a few seconds, both his eyes looked identical.

Starlight just stood in absolute shock, her jaw wide open. Jim and Seize, having seen far worse, walked up to the parents.

Seize, "did you see where that pony went, its crucial that we find her"

Jim, "were with the royal guard, any information you have would be very much appreciated"

Starlight, "his eye just imploded, then reploded, I… what"

Mable, "She didn't tell us where she was off to, but she can't be too far."

Parent stallion "Last we saw she was headed up the road towards the next town, most likely to perform the same miracle she did here"

Seize, "thank you sir, ma'am, your input is very much appreciated"

They begin to run farther up the road, starlight was still frozen in the shock that was the colts eye, Jim looks back and sees her, he runs back

Jim, "lets go"

Jim grabs her for hoof and starts dragging her down the path, her hooves making very distinct trails in the dirt.

Starlight, "eye, it caved in, then out"

Jim, "great, I think we broke her"

The parent ponies see them run down the road until they are out of sight, they then go over to their shack and open the door.

Proto, "is it clear?"

Mable, "yep their gone, you were right, they said they were with the royal guard, what did you do?"

Proto, "thats just the thing, I didn't do anything"

Mable, "and their still looking for you?"

Proto, "clearly"

Proto gets her saddle bag and begins to walk towards the door

Mable, "where will you go, we won't tell we swear, not after all you've done to help us"

Proto, "I believe you, but I'm afraid its just too much of a risk, but I can tell you this, I'm headed to the one place in this world where I know I'll be accepted for who I am"

Mable, "then may Celestia aid you in your journey miss"

Proto, "thank you for your kindness, but i'm afraid thats not going to be of any use to me"

Proto's nanite skin morphed from her legs and horn to her abdomen, her horn outstretched to its full length, the nanites shifted then former a large pair of wings, she aimed them up into the air and in one fair swoop she took off at an incredible speed. The parent ponies looked up in amazement. In the distance Starlight, Jim, and Seize are oblivious to the pony flying behind them, they were too focused on running to see her. Proto looks down and sees them running, she grins and faces the opposite direction that they were running and flew off into the sky. Underneath her cities and fields of land whizzed by as she flew on, soon she hit the ocean and she continued off into the open waters. She was free.

Year 5 month 5 day 1

"Its been two weeks and I already have a massive following behind me, the Empress herself has even taken interest in my personal modifications, I have an entire industry at my disposal the intelligence agency here had intel on me, at first I didn't understand because I had never been here prior, but then they revealed to me my true past, Celestia will pay for tampering with my life, She will be crushed, and the Empire will reign victorious."

Proto sets down her pen and parchment, she walked over to a large window and looks out at a Massive city. Her window was the Penthouse suite of a massive hotel skyscraper, the lights from the streets below caused the clouds to glow different colors. Proto stood tall looking at her reflection in the mirror, Her eye then slowly began to collapse in on itself revealing a bright white optic sensor, In comparison to the design she made for the colt in Peardale, this eye was a Supersonic jet, and the colts was a snail drawn cart. She picked up a toy Celestia that sat on the table next to her with her magic, and decintegrated it. She had a massive grin on her face from the knowledge of what was about to happen to Equestria, and she began to laugh.

 **END CHAPTER 1**


End file.
